NDP pledges $500-M health-care plan

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This article was published 27/08/2023 (741 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Manitoba NDP says it will recruit a combined total of 700 new nurses and doctors within five years if the party wins the Oct. 3 election, and it will do so by prioritizing a culture shift and making local hospitals more desirable places to work under compassionate managers.

Party leader Wab Kinew announced a $500-million, multi-pronged proposal to address the health care staffing crisis at the University of Winnipeg on Sunday.

“To you, the health-care workers in this room and across the province, I want to say this: you’ve taken such wonderful care of us during one of the most difficult times ever to be a paramedic or a physician or an X-ray tech or a healthcare aide,” Kinew said, in reference to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Now, it’s time for us to take better care of you.”

During a 30-minute speech inside Leatherdale Hall, Kinew spoke about entering politics as an act to repay the medical teams who provided care to his late father, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer more than a decade ago, and revealed a cornerstone of his party’s campaign.

The NDP’s ambitious plan includes hiring back 300 nurses in Winnipeg within two years and an “equivalent commitment” to rural and northern Manitoba within four years. It includes a specific emphasis on enlisting more rural paramedics, home-care staff and personal care home workers.

The party is also adopting Doctors Manitoba’s target of adding 400 physicians over the next five years, Kinew said Sunday, surrounded by dozens of supporters — a handful of whom were wearing scrubs, including his wife, family physician Lisa Monkman.

While noting the NDP is committed to spending more money on health care, the leader of the official Opposition said change will not happen if dollars are poured into “the same old approach” and leaders do not seek solutions from staff on the frontlines.

A long-time employee at the Health Sciences Centre, Lottie Penner — an undecided voter — showed up to hear Kinew’s speech in-person on Sunday. Penner, a lead hand, categorized morale in her department as “low.”

“Right now, I feel like (the system is prioritizing) quantity over quality and that’s not a good thing when it comes to patient care,” she said.

During his speech, Kinew recalled the numerous instances during the pandemic when nurses and doctors spoke out to criticize the Progressive Conservative government for failing to listen to health care workers.

“In order to improve retention, we need to overhaul the health care system leadership here in Manitoba and implement a new leadership culture that has more emotional intelligence.”– Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew

“In order to improve retention, we need to overhaul the health care system leadership here in Manitoba and implement a new leadership culture that has more emotional intelligence,” said Kinew, who is running a re-election campaign in Fort Rouge.

Dr. Eric Jacobsohn, one of the Winnipeg-based physicians who has been vocal about his frustrations within the sector, applauded the NDP platform after listening to the speech.

“Burnout and staffing issues are a direct result of management not looking out for people who work for them,” said the professor of internal medicine at the University of Manitoba.

Jacobsohn said decision-making needs to be given back to frontline staff who know their clinical programs best and have ideas to solve their own problems instead of “a waitlist taskforce of people that miraculously know how-to solve the health care system.”

The Manitoba Nurses Union is not endorsing any party, but president Darlene Jackson said she supports the NDP’s pledge to improve leadership accountability and advocate for a national strategy to address staffing crises across the country and prevent provinces poaching from one another.

At the same time, Jackson said she was disappointed there was no mention of the importance of introducing nurse to patient ratios in Kinew’s speech.

Both the PCs and Manitoba Liberal Party called the NDP’s updated platform into question.

In a statement on Sunday, PC Radisson candidate James Teitsma noted the party voted against the government’s $400-million plan to retain, train and recruit professionals.

“Healthcare didn’t break overnight, and we know it won’t be fixed overnight. Labour shortages are being felt across the country, but our system is healing.”– PC Radisson candidate James Teitsma

“Healthcare didn’t break overnight, and we know it won’t be fixed overnight. Labour shortages are being felt across the country, but our system is healing,” Teitsma said.

Dougald Lamont of the Manitoba Liberals called the announcement “totally inadequate.”

The next government needs to put more money into training institutions like the U of M, which have faced budget constraints in recent years, rather than setting up so-called “health care centres of excellence,” Lamont said.

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On Sunday, Kinew pledged to build new specialized centres that he described as “clinician-research chairs, funded by our team, that will allow us to recruit new Manitobans or develop homegrown talent who will be rock stars in our health care system.”

These sites will be focused on areas such as multiple sclerosis, juvenile diabetes, cancer, Indigenous health, women’s health, cardiac care and more, he said, adding clinician-researchers will deliver high-quality patient care while conducting cutting-edge studies.

In order to “truly reset the relationship between staff and government,” Kinew also proposed a common goal be established among partners — increase the number of children in Manitoba who celebrate their 18th birthday.

With that in mind, he announced the party’s intention to: double the prenatal benefit; equip every house with a smoke detector; analyze data on vehicle and ATV-related incidents to inform prevention efforts; create a plan to prevent babies being born with HIV and syphilis; and introduce a suicide prevention strategy with a focus on two-spirit and queer youth.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter

Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie.

Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.

Every piece of reporting Maggie produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.